FSU football: Quick thoughts on Chris Parson de-commitment

The writing has been on the wall with Chris Parson for quite some time, and he finally de-committed from FSU football Tuesday evening.

It all began this spring when he threw a fit when five-star QB Dante Moore visited campus with some teammates.

Parson removed FSU-related stuff from social media, and his reaction then foreshadowed the inevitable, although he said all the right things once that situation got handled until the FSU coaching staff began recruiting a second quarterback in the 2023 recruiting class.

Parson stopped posting about FSU on social media and scheduled an unofficial visit to Mississippi State, which has ties to his parents, and an official visit to SMU.

To his credit, Parson officially visited the Noles in late June when a host of top targets were on campus before heading out to compete at the Elite 11 competition.

Parson finished in the top 11, ahead of two quarterbacks FSU had offered a few weeks earlier.

Soon after, Parson’s father got on social media on Twitter Spaces and spoke about his son’s recruitment. He talked about how they had family ties to FSU and that Chris Parson was born to be a Nole.

That he wanted to be a Nole, and he was going to have Doak Campbell Stadium rocking. However, his message came across like it was an indirect way of telling the coaching staff they should only take Chris Parson as the only QB in the 2023 class.

In recent days, crystal ball predictions in favor of four-star QB Brock Glenn have appeared, and Parson dropped his commitment note.

Reasoning

The only reason he de-committed has to be he wants to be the only QB in the class. Parson is a good prospect and had a solid showing at the Elite 11 competition, but he’s not the caliber of QB that can tell a staff something like this.

He committed to a program that was coming off a 3-6 season, but he was also a three-star prospect at the time of his commitment. His father said Parson wants to be a Nole, so why would another quarterback commit to FSU change that?

He’s going to have to compete wherever he ultimately ends up. Also, he has outperformed the potential targets once at the Elite 11 competition, but does he not have the confidence he can do it over a full season or something? I don’t blame Chris Parson in this situation.

The fact his father got on social media with a group of fans and spoke the way he did spoke volumes to me.

I firmly believe he’s the one pulling the strings in this recruitment. He made incredible statements like Parson’s ranking will improve to a top 100 recruit, and his ranking suffered because he was solidly committed to FSU. However, it doesn’t quite work that way.

Parting Thoughts

I believe if the father wasn’t as involved, Parson would compete like he did at the Elite 11 competition. That competition seemed to go to the father’s head, but there’s a reason Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, and others haven’t offered Chris Parson.

If he was that coveted, those top schools would have come for Chris Parson as FSU went 5-7 last season, but that wasn’t the case. This situation feels like a lot of egos because the family has ties to the university, and they believe they have some leverage based on how FSU recruiting has gone at the QB position. I talked about it near the end of Monday night’s podcast below:

I also think de-committing before another QB potentially committed to FSU was planned to avoid the perception they were running away from the competition. However, I’ll say this. If the family wanted to be Noles, they were in the position for that to happen.

Just because he committed first doesn’t mean he’s more Nole than Lucas Simmons, who committed almost a year later than Parson. I’m glad the drama is over with in this situation. FSU coaches can move on and not have to worry about if Parson will string them along and de-commit at the last minute.

They can concentrate on securing the commitment of a QB that wants to compete. Whoever that may be. Good luck to Chris Parson, and I hope he finds somewhere that fits him well.